With many graduate employers unimpressed by unpaid internships, Jenna
Allcock asks whether they could actually be damaging your chances of
finding a job

Despite government crackdowns on companies who shirk minimum wage laws, and campaign sites such as Intern Aware and Graduate Fog naming and shaming those who offer unpaid internships, thousands of 2014 graduates will be embarking on unpaid work this summer.

While the graduate job market is picking up, competition is still extremely tough, meaning many still view unpaid internships a necessary evil – or even a rite of passage – on the route to full-time, paid graduate employment.

On top of this, graduates who took an unpaid internship ended up in a job with a lower starting salary than those who hadn’t interned at all – suggesting taking an unpaid internship might actually damage your future earnings.

Although this survey was conducted stateside, it poses worrying questions for the UK’s job-hunting graduates. Do unpaid internships really work? Do they give you the experience you need to break into an industry – or do they highlight the fact that you haven’t managed to land a paid role?

Having spoken to graduate employers, it is clear that many aren’t as impressed by unpaid internships as graduates might imagine.

"As an employer, I'm wary of candidates who have a string of short-term internships on their CVs – why did none of them turn into jobs?” says Heather Baker, MD of digital communications consultancy TopLine Comms.

“I know the job market can be tough, but it still sets off alarm bells for me,” she continues. “All internships and nothing more makes me question whether they are just box ticking. I would much rather see a candidate who has spent their holidays in a real job earning some money than someone who has bounced around from company to company.

She says that if a candidate can show that they have committed to something for a long time – like a bar job, or a shop assistant role – this would be "much more appealing" as it shows that they have staying power and are prepared "to get their hands dirty."

However Tanya De Grunwald, founder of graduate careers blog Graduate Fog, believes that multiple internships don't mean that the candidate is below-par – rather, she believes, it's the fault of the employers.

“Today's graduates just can't win,” she says. “First, they're told they don't have enough experience. Then, when they struggle through an internship (often unpaid or on very low wages) they are told that this is not good enough either.”

"I would warn good employers who are looking to hire paid staff not to be put off by graduate applicants with several internships on their CV,” she continues.

“It is not a sign they are flighty, it is a sign they are determined and have sacrificed a lot to gain the experience they feel they need to pursue a career in that industry. The system is grossly unfair and they should not be penalised for trying to navigate it.”

So what should you do if you’re offered an unpaid internship? It can be tempting to just jump at the opportunity in your eagerness for anything that might lead to a job, but it’s worth thinking very carefully about it first.

Be honest with yourself: is it with a company you’d love to work for? Will it complement your previous work experience and get you closer to your goals – or are you just doing it for the sake of it?

Just as with your degree, there’s no guarantee of a job waiting for you afterwards; putting your blood, sweat and tears into a voluntary position may not be a shrewd investment.

Remember that unpaid internships aren’t the only way to add to your CV as a job-hunting graduate. Consider setting up your own blog, teaching yourself sought after skills (with free sites like Codecademy and Duolingo) or honing your ‘soft skills’ in a stopgap job – all of these things can impress just as much as an internship, and show great initiative.

Sadly, for many industries unpaid internships continue to be the norm. But there are ways to maximise your experience. If you’ve done an unpaid internship, it’s important that you market it properly to employers.

Simply stating on your CV that you’ve interned for four months with a PR agency won’t be enough to impress – you need to draw out transferable skills which are going to be of tangible value to a prospective employer, such as working on a specific project, being responsible for something, or gaining measurable experience in a key skill or area.

But above all, try and show that you added value to the company you interned for – not that you were just another anonymous face in a long string of interns.